Jack Manning
John "Jack" Cramer Manning is a fictional character on the American soap opera, One Life to Live. He is the first-born son and second child of Todd Manning and Blair Cramer. Casting The role of Jack Manning was created on-screen by baby child actors Ryan and Riley Cramer, who were alternately in the roles from October 11, 2001 through 2003. Jack was then played as in early childhood by Christian Thomas Ashdale from 2003 through 2004, Jack Boscoe from January 2005 through October 2006, and by Thomas Christian Justusson from December 2006 through August 2007. Carmen LoPorto stepped into the role in preadolescence, portraying Jack from September 3, 2007 through January 3, 2011. In February 2011, the character was SORASed to a teenager, with Andrew Trischitta in the role since February 22, 2011. Andrew was bumped up to contract in early May 2011, making Jack a main cast member for the first time. Trischitta remained on the show through its final week on air, last airing January 12, 2012. Jack's revised birth date is October 10, 1995. Storylines Backstory In 2001, a pregnant Blair goes to San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico to have her child, followed by Todd; thinking the baby is Max Holden’s, Todd lies to Blair and tells her the little boy died soon after his birth on October 10, 2001. Todd goes to the airport, and gives the baby to a pair of nuns. Witnessing this, David Vickers gets the child back and brings him to where Todd and Blair are staying; Todd pays David a hefty sum to get rid of the baby. David gives the child to a rich Texas couple, the Millers, but Todd discovers that the boy is indeed his son and forces David to reveal his location. Todd gets him back and he and Blair name their son Jack; David blackmails Todd, threatening to tell Blair everything. Todd turns the tables on him, but Blair eventually finds out. Margaret Cochran, obsessed with Todd, kidnaps young Jack in 2004, but he is later returned. As a preteen, Jack becomes mischievous like his sister Starr before him, learning manipulative ways, as well as obnoxious and disrespectful behavior from his father. 2011 In 2011, Jack began a vicious rivalry with Shane Morasco in high school. He, along with his cohort/stooge, Brad Kozinski, make it their mission to destroy Shane and take everything away from him. They then began to do all sorts of vicious things to him, including stealing his rescue inhaler while he was having an asthma attack; stealing money Shane was collecting for a school charity drive and then framing him for the theft; writing vicious and cruel messages on MyFace; even going so far as to take his clothes away from him during gym class and shoot a video of Shane naked and then posting it online. Jack feels that Shane, whose mother is a waitress at a cafe, and his father is a private investigator, is less than nothing; while he (Jack) is the son of Todd Manning, a wealthy newspaper publisher, and the nephew of both Dorian Lord, Llanview's mayor, and her former stepdaughter and long time "frenemy", Victoria Lord, who, like Todd, is a wealthy newspaper publisher. This, he believes, entitles him to do anything he wants. When anyone confronts him for what he does, Jack denies any wrongdoing. The cruel bullying drives Shane to nearly commit suicide by throwing himself off the roof of Llanview High School. (Shane, however, was saved by his parents, Rex Balsom and Gigi Morasco, and is currently in therapy for this issue.) Jack is confronted on this behavior by his mother, Blair and his sister, Starr, but he again feigns innocence of his vicious actions. The truly unrepentant Jack continues to bully Shane, even in the face of him being grounded, and losing his phone and internet privileges. Jack's behavior is later revealed to Todd, when he awakens from the coma he was in. Todd, who initially encouraged Jack's bad behavior, is also disappointed, and sides with Blair on him being punished. On June 6th, Jack and Brad attempt to harass Shane at the gym after Gigi denies Jack service at her café, but Shane stands up to them and deliberately crushes Jack's foot with a barbell, causing Jack to cry and both Shane and Brad made fun of him for it. Blair easily sees through Jack's attempts to gain sympathy and informs him that he will now be grounded even longer. She later admits to Tomas Delgado that she is happy that somebody stood up to her son. Jack, who still refuses to learn his lesson, begins to pose as a fictitious person named Comicgirl15, as another attempt to harass and bully Shane. Shane quickly realizes it's Jack and tells Gigi when she asks why he is on MyFace. When "she" invites Shane to a party, Gigi makes Shane leave and poses as him to gain information from Jack and "kick his butt." She goes to the place where Shane was slated to go, and Jack and two of his stooges lock her in a room, thinking that was Shane. Gigi is stuck in a basement with an old back-up power generator that is leaking carbon monoxide, on the day of her wedding. Jack goes to the courthouse with Tea and is shocked to see Shane there. Shane and Jack have it out, and Shane, Rex and Roxy realize that Gigi is late to her wedding because of Jack, but Jack pretends not to know what they are talking about. After looking at the messages on Tea's laptop, Rex looks for Gigi and finds her in the basement of a rental home owned by Brad's dad. Rex takes Gigi to the hospital and calls Roxy to tell her and Shane to be with him. Shane threatens to kill Jack if anything is wrong with his mother. While at the hospital, the doctor tells Rex that "it's too late." Tea takes Jack to see his father in jail and Todd scares him in to admitting that he tried to set up Shane. Tea Delgado enters at that moment and discovers that Jack did indeed try to set up Shane. She proceeds to warn Jack that he could be tried as an adult for murder if Gigi doesn't pull through. Jack finally shows remorse for his actions, and while arguing with Todd, John and Brody, having found his fingerprints all over the basement, arrive and arrest him. After being held and his friend Brad being a witness to the crime, Brad takes the fall for Jack out of fear and Jack is released from custody thanks to Todd bribing Brad's father, which angers Rex by nearly fighting Todd in front of John. Once at home, he and his father have a conversation and Todd decides to give Jack an attitude makeover by making him work at his father's newspaper for the summer. During the job, Jack asks Todd, "What secret are we keeping from McPain?". Then Todd hands Natalie's original paternity proving that John is the father and not Brody, so as of the summer of 2011, Jack, Vimal, Marty, Todd and Brody are the only ones who know about Liam's paternity. Later while working at the Sun, Jack is attacked by someone with Todd's original face. August 2011-2012 During the "Vickerman" movie premiere on August 1st, 2011, the man claiming to be the real Todd Manning (played by the original Todd Manning, Roger Howarth) pleads to Starr and Jack to believe him. Jack sides with the Todd Manning (played by Trevor St. John) he's known as his father most of his life, saying rude things to the other Todd. The next day he tells his sister, Starr that his dad saved him from going to jail for Gigi's death and that "only a father can do that". Later, when a DNA test confirms that both of them are Todd Manning, he is not confused or shocked like the others. When Jack's long-presumed dead paternal grandmother, Irene Manning, reveals that the man thought to be Todd Manning for the past eight years is her son Victor Jr. and that the man who claims he is the real Todd Manning is proven to be the real Todd, Jack sides with Victor over his father because Victor has been there for him and he refuses to hear his father's story. On October 7, 2011, Jack takes over ownership of The Sun after Irene's death (Irene had wanted Jack to run the newspaper), and wrote a scathing cover story on his father Todd, who he suspects murdered his uncle Victor Jr. On October 12, 2011, Shane confronts Jack at the cemetery near Victor Jr.'s gravesite, and accused him of being responsible for Gigi's death, and for lying about witnessing Todd murdering Victor Jr., because Shane admitted to him that he knocked him out with his father's gun on the doorsteps of Victor Jr's house the night of the murder. Shane then shoots at a tree to scare Jack to think he might kill him. Bo and Rex then discovered both Jack and Shane at the cemetery, and took them both to the police station for questioning. Shane told them that after he knocked out Jack with the gun and tried to kill him, he then changed his mind and took Jack to drop him off at the hospital. Jack goes to the 'Sun' and stumbles upon a girl who introduces herself as Neela Patel and he offers to take get her out of there but he is unaware that he is Neela's dream guy. Later on, Jack sets the 'Sun' on fire unbeknownst to him Vimal and Rama Patel are still in the building. Todd later finds out about Jack setting the fire at The Sun, and blackmails him into being friendly to him by helping him out by picking out a Christmas tree to set up at the La Boulaie mansion two months later for Christmas. Later at The Sun in Todd's office, Neela helps Jack open up about him bullying Shane, and him being responsible for Gigi's death, unbeknownst to Jack that Shane hired Neela to record their conversation together so that he can put Jack in jail for Gigi's death. Neela and Jack then share their first kiss together. After Neela successfully records their conversation for Jack, Shane brings the tape to the police, and Jack is arrested for Gigi's death on Christmas Eve, just as Jack was ready to accept Todd as his real father. The next day, Jack gets a visit from Neela who confesses that she recorded their conversation that put Jack in jail. Jack felt betrayed, and told Neela he never wanted to see her again. Todd then bails Jack out of jail and hires Tea as Jack's lawyer. On December 29, both Jack and Tea are surprised to discover that Gigi is still alive when she comes to the police station with Shane. It turned out that Gigi's sister Stacy Morasco, not Gigi, was the one that died from carbon monoxide poisoning in the basement. Gigi then confronted Jack about almost killing her, but was stopped by Shane, telling her it wasn't worth getting even with Jack since he wasn't really responsible for her "death". After Gigi and Jack left the police station, Jack and Tea were both relieved that he wasn't responsible for Gigi's death, but John told them that Jack was really responsible for Stacy's death. Tea then argued with John that Stacy's death was an accident, and that Jack wasn't responsible for her death. OLTL 2.0 Jack is seen talking to his drunken half-sister Danielle Manning at the opening of his mother's new nightclub Shelter before she passes out from taking tainted Oxycontin pills, and is soon sent to the hospital. Jack is later surprised to see his Uncle Victor Jr. show up back in town out of the blue, a man he still considers his father, along with the reapperance of his real father Todd in town who he still despises. When Jack wants a computer gaming console that's too expensive for him to buy, Todd buys it for him to win his love which Jack happily accepts from Todd. Jack soon learns that Victor Jr. is leaving town again after he shortly came back, and they both say their good-byes to each other before he tells his nephew to make up with his father Todd so that he could give him another chance. Jack is so angry and saddened by Victor Jr.'s sudden departure from his life that he smashes the new gaming console that Todd bought him to pieces. Jack then goes back to resenting his father again, even after he found him unconsionce in his hotel suite in The Palace Hotel after Victor Jr. poisoned his drink. Jack later meets an attractive older woman at The Coffee Shop named Kate Lane, and rushes to her house with her to have sex with, but he is surprised to also later find out that he's his summer school teacher! Jack's relationship with Kate then becomes complicated when his parents hire Shaun Evans to keep a close eye on him as his bodyguard (after Todd and Blair found out that their family is being threatened by a mysterious cult unbeknownst to Jack), and he has to hire David to help him sneak over to Kate's house to be alone with her while escaping Shaun's prescence over him. Jack keeps his relationship with Kate a secret from his family, with only Dorian being the other person (other than David) to find out about him and Kate. Jack later learns that Todd is leaving town for "international business matters", but he still wouldn't make peace with his father before he leaves town again. Notes and references Category:Main Characters Category:Manning Family Category:Cramer Family Category:Fictional criminals Category:Characters Category:One Life to Live characters Category:Fictional newspaper publishers Category:Lord Family Category:Fictional murderers Category:Children